§ 300.322 Parent participation.

Plain English summary

This section requires public agencies to take affirmative steps to ensure parent participation in IEP Team meetings, including providing timely notice of the meeting with specific required information, making efforts to schedule meetings at mutually agreed times, using alternative methods if parents cannot attend in person, and providing interpreters as needed. Public agencies must document all attempts to secure parent attendance if a meeting is held without a parent present. Parents must also receive a copy of their child's IEP at no cost.

Key requirements

• Each public agency must take steps to ensure that one or both of the parents of a child with a disability are present at each IEP Team meeting or are afforded the opportunity to participate.
• Notifying parents of the meeting early enough to ensure that they will have an opportunity to attend.
• Scheduling the meeting at a mutually agreed on time and place.
• The notice must indicate the purpose, time, and location of the meeting and who will be in attendance.
• The notice must inform the parents of the provisions in § 300.321(a)(6) and (c) relating to the participation of other individuals on the IEP Team who have knowledge or special expertise about the child, and § 300.321(f) relating to the participation of the Part C service coordinator or other representatives of the Part C system at the initial IEP Team meeting for a child previously served under Part C of the Act.
• For a child with a disability beginning not later than the first IEP to be in effect when the child turns 16, or younger if determined appropriate by the IEP Team, the notice also must indicate that a purpose of the meeting will be the consideration of the postsecondary goals and transition services for the child, in accordance with § 300.320(b), and that the agency will invite the student, and identify any other agency that will be invited to send a representative.
• If neither parent can attend an IEP Team meeting, the public agency must use other methods to ensure parent participation, including individual or conference telephone calls.
• If the public agency is unable to convince the parents that they should attend, the public agency must keep a record of its attempts to arrange a mutually agreed on time and place, including detailed records of telephone calls made or attempted and the results of those calls, copies of correspondence sent to the parents and any responses received, and detailed records of visits made to the parent's home or place of employment and the results of those visits.
• The public agency must take whatever action is necessary to ensure that the parent understands the proceedings of the IEP Team meeting, including arranging for an interpreter for parents with deafness or whose native language is other than English.
• The public agency must give the parent a copy of the child's IEP at no cost to the parent.

Affected parties

• public agencies
• parents of children with disabilities
• IEP Team members
• students with disabilities (age 16 or younger if appropriate)
• Part C service coordinators
• other public agencies invited to IEP meetings

Official source

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-34/part-300/section-300.322